Remembering H. P. Lovecraft:August 20, 1890–March 15, 1937

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born on August 20, 1890, in Providence, Rhode Island, and died there of cancer on March 15, 1937. An heir to Poe and Hawthorne, Lovecraft is one of the pioneers of modern science fiction, fantasy, and horror literature. Lovecraft is a literary favorite in New Rightist circles, for reasons that will become clear from a perusal of the following works on this website.

James J. O’Meara, “The Lesson of the Monster; or, The Great, Good Thing on the Doorstep,” here

As for editions of Lovecraft’s writings, I recommend the Library of America volume H. P. Lovecraft: Tales, ed. Peter Straub (New York: Library of America, 2005), which contains 22 stories and novellas, including all of Lovecraft’s classic mature works, such as “The Call of Cthulhu,” “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,” “The Colour out of Space,” “The Dunwich Horror,” “At the Mountains of Madness,” “The Shadow over Innsmouth,” “The Dreams in the Witch House,” “The Thing on the Doorstep,” “The Shadow out of Time,” and “The Haunter of the Dark.” All of the texts are based on S. T. Joshi’s definitive edition of Lovecraft’s fiction.

Joshi’s edition is published in three volumes:The Dunwich Horror And Others, selected by August Derleth, ed. S. T. Joshi (Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, 1963); At the Mountains of Madness and Other Novels, selected by August Derleth, ed. S. T. Joshi (Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, 1964); and Dagon and Other Macabre Tales, selected by August Derleth, ed. S. T. Joshi (Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, 1965). (One must exercise great care in ordering these volumes from Amazon.com, as there are many inferior editions with similar names. The more recent printings are afflicted with hideously cheesy cover art.)

To complete one’s collection of Lovecraft’s fiction, one needs to buy two more volumes. First, there is The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions, ed. S. T. Joshi (Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, 1989), contains works wholly or partially ghost-written by Lovecraft, including some crucial contributions to the Cthuhlu mythos, such as the masterful novella “The Mound,” the fruit of profound meditations on cultural decadence. Second, one needs The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H. P. Lovecraft, ed. S. T. Joshi (San Francisco: Night Shade Books, 2001).

Joshi has also edited a five volume edition of Lovecraft’s Collected Essays. August Derleth and various collaborators also published a five volumes of Lovecraft’s Selected Letters.

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3 Comments

Excellent overview of sources. One might add that Joshi has also edited three volumes of Lovecraft for the Penguin Classics series, with similar titles but different contents, and with somewhat classier artwork. Also, the first, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories is scheduled to get the “Penguin Deluxe Classics” treatment this Fall, with even classier artwork, “deckled” page edges and “French” self-jacketed cover. See http://tinyurl.com/4x9h2tx

Even with the LoA volume, Lovecraft is still treated quite shabbily by bookstores, which stick him in the “horror” section or perhaps nowhere at all. Readers in NYC will find that the much-vaunted Strand has NO Lovecraft on the “8 miles of shelves;” however, over by the “limited editions” shelves there’s a table of imported paperbacks by Wordsworth, a Penguin knock-off, that include another three volumes of stories at cheap prices, cheesy art included.

Great to see this wonderful writer and person once again mentioned here in such an easily accessible overview of the sources available. I just remembered that there’s also an H. P. Lovecraft literary podcast that I enjoy listening to whilst doing chores around the house or playing the occasional computer game. They’ve got a lot of funny and interesting guests on their show, and of course they constantly discuss, read and review Lovecrafts texts. Check it out over at http://hppodcraft.com/ I’m sure some of CC’s readers will find it enjoyable: I’ve just listened to the five programs discussing my favourite Lovecraft-story: “The shadow over Innsmouth” (for obvious reasons), and it was quite rewarding to listen to someone else share their opinion of this favourite text of mine.